No racy ratings for TAR on SONY

Written by TVSA Team from the blog News on 11 Nov 2013
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SABC3's lagging years behind with The Amazing Race but the channel's broadcast of the show outperforms the more recent seasons on SONY by hundreds of thousands of viewers.

Now that the ratings for the Mzansi Magic soapie isiBaya are starting to challenge shows on free-to-air channels, one would imagine that the same thing is happening on other DStv channels when they offer fresh newer seasons of series in contrast to old seasons airing on free-to-air channels.

When it comes to The Amazing Race this isn't the case at all. Season 17, currently airing on SABC3, has been attracting between 800, 000 and 1 million viewers a week.

In stark contrast, Season 21, currently airing on SONY, has attracted an average of just over 20, 000 viewers a week since its start in September.

Both Mzansi Magic and SONY are available on a variety of DStv platforms so this isn't a factor in the much smaller viewership challenge to free-to-air coming from SONY.

In fact, SONY has a greater reach because it's available on the Extra, Compact and Family bouquets whereas Mzansi Magic is only on the Extra and Compact bouquets.

Here's a close-up on the weekly figures on SONY for you to scrutinize:

Important to note ...

The figures reflect South African audiences i.e. they don't include DStv viewers from other countries.
They reflect the National Universe and are calculated in the same way as the weekly Primetime TV Viewing Figures.
They reflect the average number of viewers who watched the19h35 Primetime broadcast on Sundays.

The Amazing Race broadcast date	Average viewers
22/09/2013	10 307
29/09/2013	18 607
06/10/2013	36 373
13/10/2013	29 245
20/10/2013	14 075
27/10/2013	11 659
SUMMARY:	20 023

3 Comments

Toxic
11 Nov 2013 17:56

I think the reason is a combination of Scandal and good ol' Generations. I can't recall when last I watched sony's TAR but I remember it airs at an awkward timeslot (something like 7:35- 8.25?). The people watching scandal tune in during ad breaks and leave it for Generations at 8pm. The rest, like me, watch what we can then tune into Generations. Otherwise, there seems to be something more interesting on other channels judging by how often I forget to watch it. Another reason is that I enjoy watching sabc 3's TAR because I can tweet about it with other people watching it. Sony's doesn't seem to have a lot of people wanting to tweet. When sony's TAR finally airs on SABC3, I always feel spoiled so I don't go out of my way to catch it on Sony anymore. *as I hope TAR airs midweek* *crossing fingers*

Boodah
11 Nov 2013 18:16

Mzansi Magic is also available on the Select options - which is still available to those who subscribed to it while it still existed. SET usually has low quality shows and the few that are worth watching are lost between these bad ones.

Revorushin
12 Nov 2013 13:40

Sundays should not be for this show, especially in SA where premier movies are part of our culture now. They should put the timeslot in line with other channels because they need to realise people watch things on other channels as well and this is leading to overlaps in times.

Is it possible for you to get the repeat ratings for a Monday because I can almost bet you they will be higher.

(Thanks for the series on ratings. If you need ideas for what to cover next, news would be exciting to see which of the local channels are currently tops, or comparing soccer viewership between SABC1 and SS4)

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